New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, in his annual state of the province address on 10 February, highlighted collaborative projects and investments that have contributed to New Brunswick’s growth over the past year. Among these was steady progress made towards the provincial government’s strategy for small modular reactors SMRs). He announced that New Brunswick will continue its partnership with ARC Clean Energy Canada (ARC Canada) by supporting its next phase of technology development with the establishment of another round of funding totalling CAD20 million ($16m).
ARC Canada’s Chairman, Donald Wolf, said the funding is conditioned on ARC Canada providing matching funding to increase economic impact. “ARC Canada intends to obtain the required CAD30 million of matching funds from private investors. This funding milestone will play an integral role in the deployment of our proven, inherently safe clean energy technology in the late 2020s. We believe New Brunswick possesses all the key pillars for success, including an experienced operator, a flexible workforce, the foundations of a future supply chain and an ideal academia to support development and innovation.”
ARC Canada’s President & CEO, Norman JD Sawyer said this “also officially marks the commencement of the next phase of the design review by the Canadian Regulator, furthering the success already achieved by the ARC Canada team”. New Brunswick Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister, Mike Holland said: “We feel that this technology can be developed in New Brunswick putting our province on the map as a global emissions reduction leader.”
ARC Canada is developing the ARC-100, an advanced sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor, which has been selected by New Brunswick Power for implementation at its Point Lepreau NPP site.
